Classical concert, river cruise and local vino

Today would mark our last full day in Prague before heading south to the Moravian region of the country. This morning we strolled through the Prague Castle Gardens—while doing so, I found an opening within some hedges where I was able to get a nice view of the Castle, right in front of a large ravine and fortification wall. The wide swath of land within the ravine is where the king and other nobleman once hunted. The area used to be even more dense with trees and foliage that provided a good habitat for wildlife/game.

While walking through the gardens we came across a beautiful building in which the entire facade was decorated in relief work. Our guide pointed out something very interesting…the Communist Soviet symbol integrated into the artwork. Apparently, the Russians left their mark everywhere they went—sometimes subtlety, and other times, quite obvious…such as the Zizkov Tower. With regards the the Russian mark left in the relief work, I asked our guide why Czech leaders hadn’t made an attempt to remove/fix it? The response was pretty simple…”it’s a part of Czech History, to remove it would be counter productive. We can never forget our history, if we do, we’re bound to repeat it.” I thought that was well said.

We made our way to the Lobkowicz Palace, which is the only privately owned building within the Prague Castle. The Museum offers visitors the opportunity to explore the history of Europe through the unique perspective of The Lobkowicz Collections and the Lobkowicz family. There are over twenty beautifully appointed galleries to explore, along with a café where we ended up having lunch. The café has three seating areas, the most requested on a nice day, is the balcony with a spectacular view of Prague. Unfortunately, it was full, so we sat in the charming indoor area. There is also a seasonal Renaissance-style courtyard, however I think that too was full and we didn’t have much time until our next event, which was an afternoon classical concert at the Palace.

The mid-day concert was performed by a trio of talented female musicians. Sitting and listening to classical pieces by Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and more, in the very setting that most likely played host to many of the great composers of history, was thrilling to say the least. Watching the three-piece chamber orchestra (piano, flute and violin) you could tell the musicians played with passion and pride, which emanated into the audience.

After the concert we made our way toward the Charles Bridge where we boarded one of the Prague Venice cruise boats. These unique and beautifully crafted boats took us on a cruise that offered some unbeatable views of  the city. The weather was absolutely perfect for capturing some stunning photos, and the slow pace of the cruise was quite relaxing.

Yesterday we learned about a wine festival going on and decided that would be a fun activity. We found a subway station that would take us across town, back to the Prague Botanical Gardens and Troja Château, where we were yesterday. As I mentioned, the weather was perfect and the setting for this wine festival was stunning. The vineyards where the festival took place was terraced up a hillside and was flanked by the Troja Chateau and the Prague Botanical Gardens, both venue areas accessible, with various activities going on.

We kept hearing about a local wine that translates into “fresh or unfiltered wine.” This stuff is so fresh, it’s not even bottled. Purveyors transfer the sweet vino from large barrels into water bottles. It was fun to try, but Terri and I didn’t really care for it. It was however quite popular, we saw lots of people carrying around large water bottles full of the murky wine.  We continued with our vino tasting until we found a bottle we liked. We purchased one and then looked for a spot to sit. It was quite crowded, but as we worked our way up the hill, we found a large grassy part of the gardens that was less busy. We poured a couple glasses and enjoyed the waning sun as it began to cast its amber glow across the sky.

We thought about having something to eat at the wine festival, but the choices seemed pretty limited, so we walked back to the subway station where we boarded a train that stopped right next to the Novotel Hotel, where we’ve been staying the past few days. We were a bit hunger, so we came up with the idea of ordering a pizza and picking up a bottle of wine and having dinner on our own patio, a place we had been enjoying our morning coffee the previous two mornings. We found a great pizza placed called, Grosseto. We then stopped by a local market and picked up a $4 bottle of wine, which I have to tell you, was actually much better than any of the wines we had tried at the wine festival.

Tomorrow we leave Prague for the Czech countryside, where we’ll be staying at Château Mcely…a retreat in the forest. Can’t wait! If you missed my Road Diary update yesterday, click here.